Victoria House

Updated 29 November 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

One inspector completed this announced inspection on 6 October 2017. We gave the provider 24 hours’ notice in order to prepare the people who lived there and to ensure that we visited at a time when they would be available to speak with us.

The provider had completed a provider information return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. However, the PIR had been completed four months previously and so we gave the provider the opportunity to update us on the day of the inspection. We used this information to help us to plan our inspection and come to our judgement.

We used a range of different methods to help us understand people’s experiences. People who lived at the home had varying levels of communication. We spoke with four people and also observed the interaction between people and the staff who supported them throughout the inspection visit.

We spoke with the registered manager, the operations manager, the deputy manager, the assistant manager, one senior care staff and two further care staff. We reviewed care plans for three people to check that they were accurate and up to date. We also looked at the systems the provider had in place to ensure the quality of the service was continuously monitored and reviewed to drive improvement.

Updated 29 November 2017

We inspected Victoria House on 6 November 2017 and it was an announced inspection. The home provides accommodation and support for six people with learning difficulties. This was their first inspection under a new registration.

The home had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were kept safe by staff who understood their responsibilities to protect them. People understood how to raise a concern or make a complaint and had regular meetings which supported them to do so. They were also supported to make choices about their care and what they wanted to achieve. They had care plans in place to support this and they were involved in developing these.

We saw that there were enough staff working at the home and that those staff had been recruited following procedures to check that they were safe to work with people. They received training and support to ensure that they could support people well. We saw that staff had positive relationships with people and that they adapted their communication styles to assist people to make choices about their lives. People were supported to make their own decisions and if they were not able to do so then decisions were made in their best interest with people who mattered to them.

Risks to people’s health and wellbeing were assessed and actions were put in place to reduce them so that people could lead as independent lives as possible. Medicines were given to people safely and their records were maintained and managed. People were supported to maintain their health. Individual preferences were included in menus and people were given choice about their food and drink.

The registered manager was approachable and listened to people. There were systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service. This included responding to complaints and feedback and implementing actions from them.